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National Distracted Driving Campaign Produces Positive Results

The City of Highland Park Police Department is committed to reducing distracted driving

The City of Highland Park Police Department partnered with the Illinois Department of Transportation during April’s National Distracted Driving Awareness Month to remind motorists that if they drive with a phone in one hand, they can expect a ticket in the other.

With traffic fatalities on the rise in Illinois and across the country, the City of Highland Park Police Department is committed to reducing easily preventable crashes caused by distractions such as texting or talking on a cellphone. 

Texting while driving distracts the driver visually, manually and cognitively, putting everyone on the road at risk. Sending or receiving a text takes a driver’s eyes off the road for an average of 4.6 seconds, the equivalent of driving blind at 55 mph for the length of an entire football field. 

Highland Park Police received a traffic safety grant from the Illinois Department of Transportation which provided funding for an increase in distracted driving education and enforcement daytime and nighttime patrols from April 16 through April 30, 2018. Officers stopped a total of 108 vehicles, issued 91 hand-held cell phone use while driving citations, issued 8 additional citations and written warnings, arrested two suspended drivers, and made one possession of cannabis arrest. 

The Illinois Drop It and Drive program is funded with federal highway safety dollars administered by IDOT. For additional information, please contact Commander Chris O’Neill at the Highland Park Police Department at 847.432.7730.